This invention pertains to cantilevered shelves made from rods and wires, and was developed particularly for use in commercial refrigeration cabinets and the like. It is a shelf supported only at the rear end and is capable of supporting heavy loads yet provides for rapid repositioning on vertical support members.
Most prior art cantilevered shelf constructions incorporate two brackets, one secured on each side of the shelf and having at their rear ends attachment means enabling removable attachment to vertical support brackets. The rear attachment means on the shelf normally include upper and lower components, the upper one being hooked in some manner to a cooperative component on the vertical bracket and the lower portion of that rear shelf bracket abutting the vertical bracket. Basically such a principle is utilized in most cantilevered shelf constructions and can be found in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,353 to J. McLean; U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,634 to M. A. Oztekin; U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,528 to R. G. Chesley; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,251 to C. B. Rollins, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,134 to R. J. Chesley; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,247 to George Krikorian. The foregoing patents all utilize wire shelves with some forms of flat plate attachment brackets which includes a hook inserted into a forwardly opening slot in a vertical support rail and a portion of the bracket plate below the hook portion cooperates with the vertical support rail in an abutment relationship which, in some cases, aids in locking and supporting the shelf. In addition a shelf construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,467 to L. G. Dutchburn utilizing an upper lateral rod portion bent up from and integral with a perimetral bent rod defining the shelf. That upper lateral rod portion enables the shelf to be hooked into the front side of support brackets over forwardly projecting complementary hook sections in a forwardly directed flange of the vertical support brackets. A second cross rod below the bent up rear lateral rod portion serves as the abutment part of Dutchburn's shelf.